“We will appeal the decision of the commercial court and simultaneously appeal the decision of the DNCG”, a Tours FC made it official on Wednesday evening in a press release published on social networks managed by SASP, the day after its compulsory liquidation, confirmed by the commercial court.
The club remains resolutely optimistic, claiming to have “the financial guarantee necessary to emerge from the cessation of payments”, thanks to the potential buyer Ivan Desmet and the expected payments from Fifa.
“The objective is clearly defined: hand over the club to Mr. Desmet, play in National 3 and support Mr. Desmet’s new team towards an ambitious project for Tours FC,” can we read. However, this ignores reality.
Jean-Marc Ettori is no longer at the helm
First, the court’s judgment led de facto to the opening of liquidation proceedings. The TFC SASP is therefore now fully controlled by a judicial liquidator. “As soon as the procedure is opened, the liquidator administers the company”, clearly specifies the State in this context. Jean-Marc Ettori is no longer in charge, as a judicial source confirms to us.
And the appeal of “JME” – as this obviously remains its right as owner – will not suspend this state of affairs… Knowing that the liquidator must break “employment contracts binding employees and the company in difficulty within fifteen days following the judgment ordering compulsory liquidation” (still according to the State), there may be nothing left to save once the appeal procedure has been carried out, which can take a very long time. The interviews to carry out the economic layoffs have already started to be scheduled, as of this Thursday.
This appeal will also have to be fully argued, in order to reverse Tuesday’s judgment. However, the press release states in particular that Mr. Desmet “informed the court that he would pay an additional €200,000 if necessary to get out of the cessation of payments”. The Belgian, however, said the opposite to the NR mardi : « I was preparing a transfer of €200,000, but once at the head of the company, not before. »
Furthermore, it is necessary to specify that the commercial court has never been notified of an official request for transfer to Ivan Desmet…
An automatic “forfeiture” of sporting rights
Secondly, it is on the purely sporting side that the problem lies. This compulsory liquidation “automatically results in the forfeiture of the club’s sporting rights”, according to the regulations of the FFF. Technically, today it is the TFC association which once again fully holds the affiliation number with the FFF.
Unless there is great leniency from the authorities, it is therefore illusory to talk about remaining in National 3 thanks to an appeal to the DNCG, while the association was leading the club’s reserve in R2 this season, with a descent to R3 at stake. . Furthermore, according to our information, the DNCG relegated the N3 first team to R1 on Tuesday because the accounts are in the red, even beyond the liquidation problem…
A “probable agreement” with the City?
The club finally affirms that a « probable accord » with the town hall is in the pipeline to spread its municipal debt. Once again, the liquidation being done, this statement raises questions… On this specific point, the municipality did not wish to make any comments to the NR.
It is not a secret, however, that the municipal majority has never really hidden its wish to see Mr. Ettori leave. Would it be to come to his aid today? For the association, and its 600 or so members, many of whom are children, the situation is different. It would be politically risky not to intervene.
“We are obviously going to do everything to save the association, so that the children can have a club that welcomes them at the next school year in the best possible conditions,” underlines Eric Thomas, the assistant for sports, contacted Thursday afternoon.
A meeting between the association and the town hall must also be held this Friday morning, to build on the continuation and… come out of denial?
